Paradise Island
by ReaperMel
Summary: [AU] Ever watched the TV drama Lost or the horror movie Saw? Horror fanatic Kagome did and thought nothing of it. But when she and various other strangers are abducted and left on a deadly island to survive a twisted game, she’ll think otherwise… KxI SxM


**Paradise** **Island**

Chapter One: Welcome to Hades

--

The constant dripping of water greatly irritated the new correctional officer. The fact that the plumbers had not yet fixed the leakage vexed him; the fact that they had been hired out of his and other officers' salary certainly did not make the situation any better. Worst of all, even though it had been only a week, he had already been spat on, clubbed, bludgeoned, and nearly stabbed.

"Well of course," the captain had said. "It's a prison. What'd you expect?"

He always had pride in his patience—sometimes he thought that was his only good quality—but this was enough! The brown-haired officer turned away from his station and briskly strode to the prison cell. "Hey!" he yelled, ignoring the curses thrown at him from the prisoners who had been asleep. "What's taking so long? Didn't you plug up that damn pipe by…"

He stopped.

He went pale and his arms went limp. Even in the dark the scene was vivid. In front of him lay the bodies of the two plumbers, their heads abnormally twisted like an owl's. Beside the second body was a distinct arrow drawn by blood, which was pointing back into the cell. The correctional officer, out of irrational fear, pivoted on his right heel and stumbled away with a cry of agony.

If he had followed the arrow and looked into the cell, he would've seen the bold, dripping message on the cell wall, which read:

**_NARAKU LIVES _**

--

Kagome woke up in a cold sweat. She noticed two things as soon as her eyes opened. One: this wasn't her bedroom. And two: she was wearing handcuffs, which was attached to a waist chain.

She sat up in a daze. Then something clicked. Hadn't she seen this in a movie somewhere? The girl would be bound and gagged, trapped in a cage of some sort and… no, no, no, this wasn't a movie. Kagome looked around the dank cave and realized that she was missing her socks and shoes. There was a flashlight beside her. She reached for the flashlight and, good thing her hands were cuffed in front of her, turned it on without any great difficulty. She pointed the light above and below her, and by some sort of fluke she found a newspaper clipping a few feet away.

She hesitated at first, but, after rationalizing there was nothing else to do at the moment, she crawled over in the white sand and read the article, her heartbeat settling on a normal rhythm.

_On June 7 convicted serial killer Onigumo escaped from prison after murdering two plumbers just before __midnight__. Onigumo, who went by Naraku while on his killing spree, was set to be executed on the 20th. Relatives of Naraku's past victims are outraged and have hired private detectives to find out what exactly— _

The clipping ended there.

Kagome wanted to believe this was a sick joke, but she couldn't think of anyone who'd do this to her, or remember any reality show that would abduct someone without a signed contract. She couldn't even remember how she was abducted…

She had been going home after watching another J-Horror (Japanese Horror) movie. Yes, she was a secret fanatic in all things creepy. Anyhow…after the movie…oh, right. Mama had twisted her ankle, so she had been doing most of the chores that week. She went to buy some milk and bread. She was out after curfew, sure, but she was walking up the steps to her shrine by the time she realized that so she wasn't in any hurry. Then she remembered dropping her groceries. A feeling of panic, urgency; someone was behind her.

_"Shrine maiden?" _someone had whispered. And the world went pitch black.

Kagome looked herself over. She felt fine, except for the cold sweat, missing shoes and cuffs. She turned around and squinted—was that an exit? Kagome got on her knees. Yes! It was! She stood up and buckled. Her legs were extremely weak, but the thought of escaping this cave pushed her onward. Gripping the flashlight and clipping in her cuffed hands, she limped to the opening. However, the hole turned out to be a very narrow space between the sand and a large boulder. She bent down and began to dig through the sand to widen the hole. It was difficult due to the waist chain, but since she wasn't panicking she managed.

It was a beach. She wiggled out of the cave and relished in the cool breeze. She looked to the right. Palm trees, more palm…pine trees? She looked to the left. Black sand…some cliffs.

"What…the…" her breathing became more rapid. This certainly wasn't any beach she had ever visited.

_"Ugh…" _

Kagome whirled around and noticed a white rock. Or, rather, a white head…

"Oh my god!" She stepped back. But when she noticed the head was actually moving, she deduced that the rest of the body had been buried under the sand. She rushed over and fell on her knees beside the head. The relief that she wasn't alone in this strange beach overcame her fear and anxiety. "Are you all right?" It was a little strange talking to a head, though.

"My head…" he opened his eyes. "Where the hell am I?"

She bent down to examine his face. Strange; he had white hair but a teenage face. "I don't know. I just woke up too."

"Woke up?" His face expressed realization and he turned his head with disgust evident in his eyes. "Did…did you bury me?"

Kagome was, needless to say, annoyed. "How could I?" She lifted her hands the best she could and showed him her cuffed wrists and the waist chain. "Still, what about you? Can you move? Are you cuffed too?"

"I…" he growled. "Damn, I can't feel anything. Wait." His left shoulder wiggled free and his left arm flew out from under the sand. An MP3 player was wrapped around his left hand by several broken earphones. "Get this thing off my hand so I can dig myself out of here."

He was obviously used to giving orders, but Kagome didn't protest. She dropped the newspaper clipping and flashlight and took the MP3 player. As the boy began to dig himself out she found two working earphones. She put them on and pressed play.

_"Congratulations, and welcome to __Arcadia__. By now you have met the other Player in this game. Be grateful you woke up before the tide rose—Shrine Maiden, you would've drowned in the cave. Inugami, you would've had a difficult time digging out of the sand while underwater. Do not worry, though; the fact that you're listening to this proves you have enough stamina, and luck, to survive. There are other Players on this island. Follow the clues to find or evade them." _

Listening to it had been painful—the mocking voice nearly stopped her heart. Kagome took the earphones off just as the "Inugami" began climbing out of the sand. "Whoa!"

Kagome turned. "What's wrong?"

"My hair…I just noticed," he looked at his long white hair. "Someone dyed it!"

Kagome blanched. "Seriously?"

"It's supposed to be black, like yours!" As he patted his head something small and metallic fell out from behind his ear and onto the sand.

"Oh," Kagome cried and picked it up. "A key! Here, I think it's for the handcuffs." He took the key from her and unlocked her cuffs, freeing her hands. However, there was nothing they could do about the waist chain. "Great," she grumbled. "Well, at least my hands are free."

She watched as he pocketed the key. He took the MP3 player from her and listened to it like she had moments earlier.

"I think that's Naraku's voice," she showed him the clipping as he pocketed the MP3 player. "I don't really know what's going on, but…" she picked up and fiddled with the flashlight before tucking it between the chain and her waist, along with the clipping.

He scowled. "So a serial killer's got us, and some other people, trapped on this island." He snorted and turned around, shaking his head. "You gotta be kidding me."

"Can you think of another explanation?" Kagome said, exasperated. "I don't think Candid Camera does this sort—hey!" She caught up to him as he sauntered away. "What-where are you going?"

"The last thing I remember," he said, "was leaving the resort for Seagaia. I'll be damned if this is a real beach."

"Sea…you mean that artificial beach in Miyazaki?" Kagome blinked. That would certainly explain the pine trees and the mix of white and black sands. "You think we're… but I was in Tokyo! That's no where near the Ocean Dome!"

"Whatever you say, Shrine Maiden."

She huffed. "Fine, don't believe me. And my name's Kagome!" She followed him until they stopped in front of a rocky slope. Beyond it was the forest of palm and pine trees. Kagome gaped when he began climbing up the jagged rocks. "But you're barefoot too!"

"You wanna stay here?" he turned and sneered. "Me, I'd rather get out of here before the tide rises."

He had a point. Swallowing her pride, she followed him up the rocks, scratching her right elbow and both her hands a couple of times before reaching the top. She grumbled about people who needed to be more gentlemanly as the Inugami continued ahead, not once looking back as she was forced to catch up to him once again.

"So, uh, what's you name?" she spoke, trying to break the unnerving silence.

"Inuyasha."

"Seriously?"

He ignored her. After some more walking, she noticed the sky getting darker, but whether that was because of the towering trees or that the sun was setting she had no idea.

"Do you recognize where we are?" she chirped.

He stopped so suddenly she nearly crashed into him. He sighed and turned, saying, "Obviously not. Do you?"

"Like I said, I was in Tokyo. I've never been to Miyazaki…oh god." She shuddered and shielded her eyes.

"What?" he looked to where she was pointing and stared in horror. "Aw, sick! How old do you think that corpse is?"

"I don't want to know." Kagome whimpered, having hid behind Inuyasha to avoid the scene.

"I guess he hanged himself."

"Can we go?"

"Look at those maggots."

"I think I'm going to be sick."

Inuyasha stared. "Wait, there's a note pinned to his stomach." Before Kagome could deter him he walked over and covered his nose as he read the note. He had a confused expression on his face as he came back to her side. "Loser."

"Excuse me?"

"It said Loser. That's what the note said."

Kagome put the two and two together. "The recorded message said this was a game and we were the players."

Inuyasha watched incredulously. "What, are you saying that guy," he pointed to the corpse, "lost?"

She bit her bottom lip. "I…guess…"

He sighed. He looked around the trees and up at the darkening sky. "This is for real, isn't it?"

Just then the two of them heard something that made them do a double take and their heart leap: the ringing of a cell phone. Without a word both Inuyasha and Kagome raced to the sound. However, before they could find the source of the sound the ringing stopped.

"I think it was around here," Inuyasha looked around. "That sounded like my ring tone. If you find a red cell phone—"

"Wait, I—" Kagome held up the red cell phone just as she turned and felt the ground beneath her give way. "Inu—" she threw her body forward and grabbed for a nearby shrub with her free hand, but her legs caught onto something and the pain was enough to make her lose her grip. Inuyasha, who had always been proud of being the track star back at his school, dove for Kagome and grabbed onto the wrist that held his cell phone. "Gotcha!"

"My legs," Kagome groaned as he dragged her out of the hole. Both her legs were bleeding from shallow gashes. When Inuyasha looked into the hole he saw several sharpened stakes sticking out of the sides of the dirt wall and even more at the bottom.

"It was a trap," Inuyasha said and cursed. "He's really out to get us. Unbelievable." He turned as Kagome tried to get up and saw her fail and then fall on her knees. "Can't stand?"

"Are you going to leave me here?" she asked. He was surprised, to say the least. Of all the things to say she'd ask him _that_ at a time like this?

He sighed. "All right, get on my back."

Kagome stared. "What?"

"I said," he turned around, kneeled down, and grabbed her wrists and pulled them over his shoulders, "get on my back." After he made sure her arms were secured around his neck he grabbed her thighs and stood up. Kagome felt more than silly, getting a piggyback ride from a boy no older than she was.

"Uh, are you sure this is OK?"

"I'm just glad you're not overweight."

Kagome looked up as the clouds rumbled. A raindrop fell on her nose.

"Besides," he said just as the rain began to fall. "You can be my umbrella."

"Oh joy," she scowled.


End file.
